


spots off, claws in

by eggboyksoo



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: A sequel to a social media AU, Alternate Universe - Miraculous Ladybug Fusion, Established Relationship, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan-centric, M/M, Minor Huang Ren Jun/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas, Minor Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin, Minor Moon Taeil/Nakamoto Yuta, Post-Superhero Career
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:49:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27894856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eggboyksoo/pseuds/eggboyksoo
Summary: Donghyuck has a burner phone that he keeps fully charged on top of his chest of drawers. It hasn’t pinged with a text in over two years.When Donghyuck goes over to Mark’s condo, or Jaemin and Jeno’s shared apartment, or Renjun’s penthouse, there are phones sitting on a TV cabinet, with spare camera equipment, on a bedside table. All similar models, all fully charged. And when he sees those phones as he enters their homes, Donghyuck’s gaze settles on them too for a moment, waiting for a message that has not yet come.Until it does.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 1
Kudos: 71





	spots off, claws in

**Author's Note:**

> hi there, welcome to this piece! for those of you who may have followed my old account on twitter, you might know i wrote a miraculous ladybug au that i never finished. since i've deactivated my old account, it's gone now—but i stopped it just before the Huge Climax, and i hated that i never finished it, especially since i knew exactly how it would end. this doesn't fill all the wholes, but i hope this provides some closure to people as it did for me. although this serves as an ending to that au, i hope that it's able to stand alone as a piece even for those who haven't read it. 
> 
> although it's directly inspired by miraculous ladybug, i did take a lot of creative liberties with the plot in the au, and thus the plot of this fic.
> 
> thank you to d as always for proofreading this!

Donghyuck has a burner phone that he keeps fully charged on top of his chest of drawers. It hasn’t pinged with a text in over two years.

For some people who enter his room—his mother and father, children he babysits, schoolmates who come over for group projects—it’s a non-entity. It sits there, but remains unseen, protected by the last vestiges of magic Donghyuck used to be constantly surrounded by. For others—for Jaemin, for Jeno, for Yukhei, for Renjun, for Mark—it is the first thing their gaze passes over when they enter the room. Even Donghyuck can’t help but look at it every time his eyes flicker over the drawers.

When Donghyuck goes over to Mark’s condo, or Jaemin and Jeno’s shared apartment, or Renjun’s penthouse, there are phones sitting on a TV cabinet, with spare camera equipment, on a bedside table. All similar models, all fully charged. And when he sees those phones as he enters their homes, Donghyuck’s gaze settles on them too for a moment, waiting for a message that has not yet come.

Until it does.

Donghyuck had anticipated not being a superhero would be difficult. But he hadn’t expected it to be so easy, either.

The moment when Yuta emerges from the carnage that’s Hawkmoth and all but crashes, shaking, into Taeil’s arms, the others give up their miraculouses, too. Red Kitsune, Carapace and Hive King hand over their miraculouses and new found abilities without a thought and cling to the people that love them. Donghyuck remembers Yukhei asking Renjun if he’s up for growing his hair back out into a sexy topknot; Jeno and Jaemin stand apart from the rest of them, holding each other in silence.

And yet Mark and Donghyuck, despite knowing it’s all over, leave them to patrol the streets of Neo City. They do two laps before they stop on a random rooftop and Donghyuck feels Mark’s heart beat thunderously in his chest, tastes how salty his tears are when they’d kiss. Even though it’s nothing that he had hoped for, being asked to be Mark Lee’s boyfriend—Chat Noir’s boyfriend—while they stand there in their costumes, in that moment, Donghyuck has never felt so much like himself.

They keep their miraculouses for a few more months, both as a safety blanket for the city and for themselves. When Donghyuck studies for his finals, sometimes he hears sirens in the distance, and he reaches for his burner phone which no longer informs him of any akuma alerts because there aren’t any anymore, and Donghyuck has to take a few deep breaths on his balcony to remind himself that saving the city isn’t his job anymore. Some nights he can’t be convinced, and lets the magic envelop him once more, and goes on a patrol around the city, letting the city and the lack of akumas speak for itself.

When Donghyuck puts the earrings back into the box filled with the other miraculouses—the box that Taeil had kept hidden under a record player, which Yukhei now hides in a safe in Renjun’s bedroom—Mark’s silver ring sitting beside them, things shift. Over time, the instinct to run to help in dangerous situations lessens. Mark starts calling him _Hyuckie_ or _Babe_ , rather than _Bugaboo_. Jaemin archives the Ladyblog, his pride and joy, thanking everyone for their hard work and to anticipate further endeavours from him. Mark and Donghyuck kiss on the streets, kiss in their rooms, and don’t think about the moments they used to share huddled up on the ledge of a high building or an unassuming rooftop.

The only time it truly comes back in full force to remind Donghyuck it was all real is when the former Team Ladybug meet up, and Renjun brings some stupidly expensive Moët to their nights in. As they drink themselves silly, the bubbles and the giggling gave way to reminiscing. It’s the way their eyes light up when they’re laughing at the stupid lies he used to tell to leave class, or the blush on Mark’s face when they talk about how different Mark and Chat were from each other, that the memories begin to feel tangible to Donghyuck again.

Mark misses it more than the others, more than Donghyuck does. It had been more than a burden to Mark—it had been a heavy responsibility, but it had brought freedom. Donghyuck knew this before they had to give their miraculouses up, and he knows it now, too, even when Donghyuck’s grateful to be well-rested, for time spent with friends and family, for not needing to lie anymore, for the opportunity to be just like any other young person.

Sometimes he catches Mark twirling his pen in his fingers when he’s writing songs, looking at the pen as if he can make it a staff. Even now, when Donghyuck generally gives macarons a bit of a berth, Mark still eats camembert. Donghyuck ends up buying it for him when they go on picnics, and enjoys teasing him about the smell.

Donghyuck sometimes finds Mark on his balcony, not clad in black leather, but in sweatpants and a soft sleep shirt that Donghyuck likes to tuck his face into, looking up at the sky. “Neo City is safe, Donghyuck,” Mark says. “It’s safe.”

It’s a source of pride and of pain. And on those nights, Donghyuck stands there with him, and thinks about nights not quite like this one, where he flew through the air, Chat Noir hot on his heels, the heavy burden forgotten as he swung through Neo City.

Donghyuck says, “Yeah, I know, kitty.”

It’s fitting, then, that it’s Mark who hears Donghyuck’s burner phone buzz first.

It’s a Friday. Donghyuck is 20 years old and he is approaching the end of his second year in college. It can’t come fast enough. He’s washing his face and brushing his teeth because Mark is sitting in his bed for the first time in a little while, since he’s been spending a lot of time at the studio working, and once Donghyuck gets into bed, he knows he won’t want to get back out. Donghyuck’s parents are delighted Mark’s here and they’ve already told both of them that they’ll set aside some bread and pastries for them so they can have a proper brunch tomorrow morning.

Before he walks into the bathroom, Donghyuck takes out a pair of sweatpants from his chest of drawers, eyes flickering over the phone that sits on top of it, the last tangible piece of a life that’s no longer his. The screen is dark as always; Donghyuck doesn’t think too much of it. It only ever lights up when Donghyuck plugs it in every few days, to keep its charge.

He’s gently patting toner into his face when Mark slams open his bathroom door, eyes wide and clutching something in his hand.

“Donghyuck,” Mark says. “ _Donghyuck_.”

The last time Donghyuck had heard Mark say his name like that, Donghyuck had just taken the mask off his eyes, exposing his face for Chat Noir to see.

That’s when Donghyuck realises what Mark is holding. Donghyuck’s burner.

“Did it—?” It’s hard to speak. “Who—?”

“Mr Moon,” Mark says. He fumbles with the phone, plugging in the passcode that Donghyuck told him the day after they’d given their miraculouses to Yukhei. “He says he wants to meet at his tea shop and for Yukhei to bring the miraculouses.”

Mark pushes the phone right up to Donghyuck’s face. Donghyuck feels himself going cross-eyed. Grabbing Mark’s wrist, he moves his hand until the text messages come into focus. And that is, in fact, what is on screen—Mr Moon texting from his old number, in the old group chat they’d last used before that final battle. Just before Taeil’s new messages, he can see a message he’d sent of his own, two years ago: _we can do this!_

Mark’s hand is trembling. Donghyuck’s hand at Mark’s wrist doesn’t feel too stable, either.

The phone pings again, and Donghyuck nearly knocks over an expensive bottle of serum gifted to him by Renjun, “to help your ugly mug”.

_Mr Moon? Is it really you?_

It’s Yukhei, of course, and they watch in fascination as more chat bubbles appear.

_Yes, it is me. Yuta and I have finally completed what we set out to do. We hope to see you all there._

Mark and Donghyuck get to Mr Moon’s Tea Shop by car. Mark’s too famous to use the subway without a little entourage following him, and while Mark and Donghyuck typically grin and bear it, there are some parts of their life that they would like to keep private. It’s a far cry from the swinging and the propelling they were doing as kids, but Mark says, “I think this is the first time I’ve gone to see Mr Moon without, like, sweating in my suit,” and Donghyuck laughs until there are tears in his eyes.

“Good lord, the _chafing_.”

Mark’s face screws up into a pout. “The magic took away most of it, but it was _really_ kind of uncomfortable, babe. It’s not even funny.”

They decide in silence to wait for the others. There are parts of this whole thing that just belong to Mark and Donghyuck, but Mr Moon had asked for them all, and so they wait. Donghyuck reaches for Mark’s hand and occupies himself by playing with his fingers and humming along to the radio, waiting for Jaemin to blow up his phone.

Mark’s phone starts vibrating in the cupholder instead, _JENO LEE_ appearing on the screen.

“Jaemin must be driving,” Mark says, activating the call button on the car panel. “Hey guys, are you almost here?”

 _“Jaem took a wrong turn, so we’ll be there in five minutes,”_ Jeno says, measured and calm despite Jaemin’s squawk.

 _“The map was just wrong,”_ Jaemin says. _“We’ll beat Yukhei and Renjun anyway.”_

“Fair,” Mark says. Renjun still takes way too long to get ready, and Yukhei would rather stick pins in his eyes than rush him. “Although—wait, Hyuck, is that their car?”

A huge, black SUV—a gift from Renjun to Yukhei, funded generously by the Mayor—turns the corner. “Oh yeah, it’s them. Check the number plate. YUKH31.”

Jaemin swears on the other end of the line. Jeno just says, _“Watch where you’re driving.”_

 _“Five minutes,”_ Jaemin says, and the call disconnects.

They watch as Yukhei smoothly parks in the parking space immediately in front of them. As soon as the car falls still, Renjun hops out of the passenger’s seat and moves towards them. Even through the windshield, Renjun makes Donghyuck feel underdressed. Mark unlocks the back door just as Renjun pulls it open, hopping into a seat.

“Hi losers, I’ve missed you,” Renjun says brightly. “How’s the new album going, Mark?”

“Thanks, Renjun, I’ve been doing very well,” Donghyuck says dryly.

“That’s a lie, because you’re at college and every day in college if you’re not at a party, sucks,” Renjun says, primly. There’s a deep chuckle as Yukhei makes it to the same door, hoping to take a seat, and Renjun moves over, patting the empty seat next to him.

“Asshole,” Donghyuck grunts, but there’s no heat in it. Renjun’s right.

“The album’s going great,” Mark says. “I think recording might be done by the end of the month, thank God. There’s just one more song I have to record and then I’m going over the others to make sure they’re right before we go ahead with mixing.”

“When are you planning on releasing it?”

“Next summer. Management are asking me to consider deferring for all of next year, just so I can release some singles before the album drop and start preparing for a tour, but I’m thinking of going part time next year instead and then start touring once Hyuck’s done with school.”

“I’ve had rumours that it’s going to be an arena tour.”

“Yeah, how did you—? Nevermind, yeah, that’s the plan. I already told them I’m not keen until Hyuck’s done. I already deferred for my first semester, you know, and I’m already behind. And I don’t want to go on tour knowing Hyuck’s gonna need me and I’m gonna need him, you know?”

“There is something called FaceTime.”

“Like you’d be okay not seeing Yukhei for months at a time, Renjun!”

“I’m fairly sure I can live without Yukhei if I needed to. I just don’t want to and I’d make your lives insufferable if I had to. Either way, Mark, that’s very cute of you, and I’m sure you can make it work in your favour.”

“Thanks, Renjun. If I need you to appeal to my management, you’re the first person I’ll call.”

“Any time, Markiepoo.”

“And what’s up with our resident genius?” Donghyuck asks. “Keep it to conversational talk for me though, I’ve had a long week.”

“He—”

Donghyuck cuts Renjun off. “I’d like to hear from _Yukhei_.” Renjun gets a little proud about his boyfriend’s achievements—adorable, the first few times it happens, until you just want Renjun to stop talking.

Yukhei laughs at Renjun’s huff. “I’m doing great, actually. Just a lot of lab stuff. I won’t bore you with the details, but it’s incredible.”

“That’s great to hear, seriously. At least some of us are having fun at college.”

“Well, I wouldn’t go _that_ far.”

“Where’s Jeno and Jaemin? Why aren’t they here yet?”

“Jaemin took a wrong turn.”

Yukhei sighs. “I’m always telling Jaem he has to have more faith in the GPS.”

“When Jaemin starts listening to people and not being fucking stubborn all the time, that’s the day pigs fly.”

It’s silent for a moment before Mark turns in his seat.

“You got the box, man?”

Lucas taps something that Donghyuck can’t see. He hears the rap of hollow, ancient wood. “Right here, dude.”

Donghyuck watches Mark watch the box. “I can’t believe this is really happening,” Mark says.

“Yukhei nearly fell out of bed when he got the text,” Renjun says.

“I nearly broke your expensive serum,” Donghyuck adds.

“Lucky you didn’t, that serum is expensive!”

“I know you could buy me some more.”

“I _could_ , but it doesn’t mean I _would_.”

“You love me.”

Donghyuck and Renjun settle in for some banter, Yukhei and Mark talking over them until Jeno and Jaemin’s hatchback begins to park across the road. The realisation of what is about to happen only fully sinks in when Jaemin knocks on his window, eyes sparkling and sympathetic as he asks Donghyuck, “Well. Should we go in?”

They enter as a group, holding hands or with arms flung over shoulders. Jeno asks for Renjun’s advice with a partnership deal that he’s been offered while Jaemin rambles about the evils of the GPS to Donghyuck while Mark humours Yukhei and allows him to talk freely about all the things he’s discovering in the lab.

Taeil and Yuta are sitting at Taeil’s old table, a beautiful, old wood, polished but unvarnished. Taeil is making tea. There’s something about the familiar tea pot and the warmth of the room and the incense that Taeil burns, and hearing the last of Jaemin’s complaints about having to rely on the GPS to get him to interviews that makes his head spin. The site is so familiar, and yet Donghyuck himself feels so different, and he’s struggling to keep up.

Taeil’s hair is a bright, fiery red. Yuta’s is a deep, complementary navy blue. They have lived for over two centuries between them, and yet they have never looked younger.

Taeil looks up as they approach, and then he stands with a smile. Yuta, already sitting at the table, looks up shyly and curls in on himself a little. Even then, he still looks intimidating, even if he’s not trying to be.

If Donghyuck has changed this much in two years, surely the same could be said for Yuta, right?

Taeil approaches then, stopping right in front of Donghyuck. His gaze is piercing. “Look at you,” he says. “You’re all grown up.”

Perhaps it surprises him the most when he launches himself at Taeil, fighting and failing to keep the tears at bay.

When they’re all seated, Taeil fills them in on what they’d been up to for the last two years. Yuta lets him speak for the most part, keeping his head down and his eyes closed, the pain and the suffering he must have endured too raw to speak upon.

They talk about finding the ruins of the temple, where they had lost their friend Hansol, and they link their hands together and breathe. It’s Yuta who picks up there, and they talk about how they scoured the ruins, and eventually found remnants of old tomes and information and they set themselves to work.

“And now I am healed,” Yuta says. “I have a lot of repentance ahead of me, and a lot of wrongs I have to make right. But I have a chance to do those things, and I thank you all for it.”

He bows his head deeply, and Donghyuck’s relieved when Mark touches his shoulder.

“Sometimes good people do bad things,” Mark says, “But the most important thing is taking accountability for it.”

Yuta smiles—a bright, sunny thing, and two years ago, if you had asked Donghyuck, he wouldn’t have been convinced Hawkmoth could ever smile.

“We wanted to thank you in person, of course, for your help in allowing us to correct the mistakes of our youth,” Taeil says. “We are aware that by doing so you have had to give up your youth, and that is a debt we cannot repay easily. But there is one thing that we can think we can give you, and hopefully that will be enough.”

Donghyuck frowns. “You don’t have to—”

“Let us try?” Taeil asks, and they fall silent. “Yukhei, the miraculouses please.”

The magic Taeil and Yuta use is unlike Donghyuck had ever seen back when he was a wielder. This magic has Donghyuck‘a spine tingling, calling upon something old and ancient, and he feels the ground tremble, but also the air, even if nothing is moving. Instinctively, he finds Mark’s hand and grips onto it, and things begin to feel steady.

“I don’t think trying to take the whole thing down is a good idea for a present, Mr Moon,” Jeno says. “I don’t know about the others but I definitely don’t have the reflexes anymore.”

“It’s not to bring any buildings down,” Yuta replies, “We are just trying to break open a seal.”

Taeil opens the wooden box, and Donghyuck stares at the six miraculouses, all sitting pretty in their allocated spaces. Taeil takes the earrings and the ring without fanfare, putting them in Donghyuck and Mark’s palms.

The earrings are warm.

“What—?”

Two orbs of light surround the miraculouses: one pink, one green. Donghyuck almost falls over Mark in shock, although his boyfriend isn’t doing much better. He watches as the orbs of light materialise into something that reminds him of bobbleheads, and then the eyes of the little pink thing floating in the air begin to flutter open.

 _Kwamis._ Taeil talked about them once, and any mention of them after he discussed his history with Yuta and Hansol seemed to physically pained him. Kwamis were the beings that powered the miraculouses that they had sealed away in their attempts to free them.

The black cat kwami hovering over Mark’s cupped palm—Plagg, if Donghyuck’s memory serves him correctly—speaks first. His green eyes are barely open as he zooms towards Mark’s face, sniffing him.

“You smell tasty,” he says. “Do you have some camembert on you? I’m so hungry, dude.”

Mark blinks once, and then twice. The whole room is silent as they watch. And finally, he laughs—beautiful and bright and free, and although Mark isn’t in costume, Donghyuck can see and hear Chat Noir.

“Dude, I’ll buy you all the camembert you want in a second.”

“This is why I liked you,” Plagg says. “Kind of cringey, but you were alright.”

Renjun and Jeno laugh at that, enjoying the jokes at Mark’s expense.

Donghyuck is preoccupied with the fluttering by his cheek.

“Donghyuck?”

Donghyuck turns slightly. The pink kwami beams up at him, bright blue eyes piercing even in the low light.

“Hi,” Donghyuck says. “You’re Tikki, aren’t you?”

Tikki nods. “I am.”

Donghyuck takes a deep breath. “I know that you might not know me well, but I am very glad you’re free.”

Tikki is such a tiny thing, but the earnestness she exhibits makes Donghyuck teary.

“Oh, Donghyuck,” Tikki says, in a voice both maternal and child-like and eternal all at once, “It is _such_ a pleasure to finally meet you.”

**Author's Note:**

> [twitter](http://twitter.com/eggboyksoo)   
> 


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